Salem – RDZ Photography

Virtual Travel – Massachusetts

Architecture, History, Museum, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1628, with the initial towns being located in Salem and Boston. This colony was established 8 years after the Plymouth Colony, but the name they chose stuck.

The state has numerous locations of historical importance, but it does not live in the past. With colleges like MIT it is at the forefront of technology.

But you have to travel to get around the state so we start with:

1971 – 1999 – 2012 Transportation in Massachusetts

According to some statistics Massachusetts drivers are statistically the worst drivers in the country. But if you leave the hotel at 5 AM on a Saturday you get a tunnel that looks like this…

Instead of this….

Boston does have an extensive subway system.

There are two major train stations in the city, including South Station

Logan Airport is just 3 miles from downtown Boston, but it is across the harbor.

The MTA also has a fleet of ferry boats, however most are very small.

2009 History in Massachusetts

As previously noted, Massachusetts has a lot of history. Below is a actor playing the part of Paul Revere

Salem – House with 7 Gables

Salem Harbor

Lowell – Historic Cotton Mills

2001 & 2007 – Boston

Boston is a city where the latest is next door to the historic.

Historic Waterworks

North End

Fenway Park – the legend

MIT

Boston Main Library

2003 – 2011 Cape Cod & The South Shore

The Massachusetts coast has numerous small towns with harbors.

Plymouth Rock – pure fiction, but pure American.

Lobstah

Cape Cod National Seashore

Shack where the first transatlantic cable terminated. At one time this was high tech.

Boston – June 2014 – North Shore Highlights

Architecture, History, Water Features

A trip to Boston to help our daughter move provided us an opportunity to see some of the highlights of downtown Boston and the North Shore highlights.

Our 660 mile drive to the Boston suburbs took us 10 hours, and our 15 mile drive from our suburban hotel to her apartment took an hour and a half. But we picked her up and walked up the street for dinner. We treated her to a nice dinner at a place called the Fireplace, where I had a small bowl Lobster Mac & Cheese, which cost $35.

Saturday morning, we picked her up for a tour of Boston and the North Shore area.

For those fans of milestones we went through the Ted Williams Tunnel under Boston Harbor. The end of this tunnel is the official eastern end of Interstate 90. Having been at the western end in Seattle a few weeks earlier made this even more interesting.

After cruising through downtown we headed to Winthrop, a town on a peninsula that juts into Boston Harbor, beyond Logan Airport, which gave us cool views of the airport in front of the tall buildings.

We continued up the north shore to Salem, where we went in a very cheesy tourist trap called the Salem Witch Museum. It was some of the worst animatronics ever made.

The rest of Salem, especially the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, was very nice.

In addition, it was just around the House of Seven Gables.

Later we went to the small seaside town of Rockport, Massachusetts, not to be confused with the more famous one in Maine. Tripadvisor suggested a place called the Roy Moore Lobster Company. We walked in this small shack, where the guys working there immediate gave me shit about my Pittsburgh Pirates shirt, which of course I returned, then we proceed to get 3 complete, fresh from the ocean lobsters for $35, or the same price of a bowl of Lobster Mac & Cheese in Brookline!

We found a picnic table in the back, over the water and chowed down. Easily the best lobster dinner I ever had.

Early Sunday morning we started for home. Since it was Sunday, and early I decided to take I-95 down the coast to New York City, which normally is far too busy to try.

We made our way through Providence, New Haven, and Bridgeport before crossing into Westchester County, and eventually onto the Cross Bronx Expressway, UNDER a 20 floor apartment building and onto the George Washington Bridge.